USE I. Of comfort to the people of God. The doctrine of the resurrection is a spring of consolation and joy unto you. Think on it, O believers, when ye are in the house of mourning, for the loss of your godly relations or friends, that ye sorrow not, even as others, which have no hope; for ye will meet again, 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14. They are but lain down, to rest in their beds for a little while, (Isa. lvii 2.) but in the morning of the resurrection they will awake again, and come forth of their graves. The vessel of honour was but coarse, it had much alloy of base metal in it; it was too weak, too dim and inglorious, for the upper-house, whatever lustre it had in the lower one. It was cracked, it was polluted; and therefore it behoved to be melted down that it may be refined and fashioned more gloriously. Do but wait a while, and you shall see it come forth out of the furnace of earth, vying with the stars in brightness; nay, as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. Have you laid your infant children in the grave? You will see them again. Your God calls himself the God of your seed; which, according to our Saviour's exposition, secures the glorious resurrection of the body. Wherefore let the covenant you embraced, for yourself, and your babes now in the dust, comfort your hearts, in the joyful expectation, that, by virtue thereof, they shall be raised up in glory; and that, as being no more infants of days, but brought to a full and perfect stature, as is generally supposed. Be not discouraged by reason of a weak and sickly b•dy; there is a day coming, when thou shalt be every whit whole. At the resurrection, Timothy shall be no more liable to his often infirmities; his body, that was weak and sickly, even in youth, shall be raised in power: Lazarus shall be heal and sound, his body being raised incorruptible. And although, perhaps, thy weakness will not allow thee, now, to go one furlong to meet the Lord in public ordinances; yet the day cometh, when thy body shall be no more a clog to thee, but thou shalt meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thess. iv. 17. It will be with the saints coming up from the grave, as with the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, Psal. cv. 37 There was not one feeble p•son among their tribes. Hast thou an uncomely, or deformed b•y? There is a glory within, which will then s• all right without;
USE I. Of comfort to the people of God. The doctrine of the resurrection is a spring of consolation and joy unto you. Think on it, O believers, when ye are in the house of mourning, for the loss of your godly relations or friends, that ye sorrow not, even as others, which have no hope; for ye will meet again, 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14. They are but lain down, to rest in their beds for a little while, (Isa. lvii 2.) but in the morning of the resurrection they will awake again, and come forth of their graves. The vessel of honour was but coarse, it had much alloy of base met•l in it; it was too weak, too dim and inglorious, for the upper-house, whatever lustre it had in the lower one. It was crackt, it was polluted; and therefore it behoved to be melted down that it may be refined and fashioned more gloriously. Do but wait a while, and you shall see it come forth out of the furnace of earth, vying with the stars in brightness; nay, as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. Have you laid your infant children in the grave? You will see them again. Your God calls himself the God of your seed; which, according to our Saviour's exposition, secures the glorious resurrection of the body. Wherefore let the covenant you embraced, for yourself, and your babes now in the dust, comfort your hearts, in the joyful expectation, that, by virtue thereof, they shall be raised up in glory; and that, as being no more infants of days, but brought to a full and perfect stature, as is generally supposed. Be not discouraged by reason of a weak and sickly b•dy; there is a day coming, when thou shalt be every whit whole. At the resurrection, Timothy shall be no more liable to his often infirmities; his body, that was weak and sickly, even in youth, shall be raised in power: Lazarus shall be heal and sound, his body being raised incorruptible. And although, perhaps, thy weakness will not allow thee, now, to go one furlong to meet the Lord in publick ordinances; yet the day cometh, when thy body shall be no more a clog to thee, but thou shalt meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thess. iv. 17. It will be with the saints coming up from the grave, as with the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, Psal. cv. 37 There was not one feeb•e p•son among their tribes. Hast thou an uncomely, or deformed b•y? There is a glory within, which will then s• all right without;
